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Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago Join Electronic Transcript Exchange

• By Kevin Hudson
• 03/12/13

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) have decided to transition from traditional paper transcript exchanges to electronic transcript exchange services. The organizations have selected Docufide by Parchment as the platform for modernizing their transcript management processes.

For CPS, the move comes via participation in a statewide electronic transcript exchange initiative sponsored by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission and the Illinois State Board of Education, which subsidizes related technology costs for high schools.

Key features of the platform include the ability of CPS students to securely request their transcripts to be electronically delivered to CCC, or any other higher education institution across the country or internationally, making the college application process more accessible for the district's more than 113,000 secondary students, according to a release.

"Our students are applying to a diverse set of higher education institutions across the country, and the ability to send transcripts and records electronically is imperative because it positions them to be successful in the next phase of education," said Barbara Karpouzian, director of K12 counseling and advising at CPS, in a release. "Ensuring students' successful transition from CPS to their future endeavors is one of our most crucial responsibilities, and e-transcripts are an important aspect of student support services."

For CCC, the transition to e-transcript services is in part to help manage the more than 40,000 transcripts per year the college system handles, while also supporting and streamlining CCC's College to Careers program, which is intended to help students better align their academic credentials with ongoing postsecondary education and career opportunities.

"With access to critical learner data, we're better able to transition students from high school to college to career. We can place students in the appropriate programs and classes where they're most likely to thrive," said Arshele Stevens, vice chancellor of information technology at CCC, in a release. "Parchment provides the critical piece of infrastructure enabling schools to turn transcript credentials data into intelligence that improves student outcomes."

Founded in 2003, Parchment is a venture-backed company headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, with offices in Roseville, CA, Denver, CO, and Washington, DC. More than 7,300 active member high schools and postsecondary institutions and seven statewide initiatives have exchanged more than 8 million transcripts using the Docufide and Avow SaaS platforms, according to a company release.